Shock
by AnEquivalentExchange
Summary: Ed wakes up in the hospital with no recollection of the incident that landed him and Mustang there. Now Ed is desperately trying to regain his memory as the colonel and his team are put at stake.
1. Chapter 1

Edward awoke, and this time it felt different. He had a vague sense that this was not his first time regaining consciousness. He could remember in memories so vague that they were nothing more than notions that there had been a long stretch of dark unconsciousness that had been punctured by short bouts of unintelligent wakefulness.

This time was different; even in his unalert, half-asleep state, Edward could feel things he hadn't before. The room was quiet, wherever he was. The bed thin but soft nevertheless as was the flimsy sheet that covered him up to the chest. The word safe came to mind and, for some reason, that was more of a relief than a given.

There was a small creak to Edward's left. His ears were easily able to place the sound, and Ed felt himself fill with even more relief. "Brother?" Alphonse's voice inquired far too hopefully.

Ed hadn't realized he had done anything to give away that he was awake. He was still coming to himself, and his eyes still closed. Perhaps he had made a small noise upon awaking, or maybe Alphonse realized this time it was different, just as Ed had. Maybe, judging by that hopeful, almost disbelieving tone in Al's voice, he had been watching his brother sleep.

When Al spoke next, his voice had drawn closer, his armor clanking further as he bent over Edward slightly. "Ed?" His voice faltered with uncertainty when Ed didn't respond.

Ed was still in a daze even though it had been several minutes since he was sure he was definitely awake. He had to be on some sort of medication. Ed had been hospitalized enough in the past few years to know damn well what it felt like to be drugged up on pain killers.

Which begged the question: what the hell happened to him?

Ed forced his heavy eyelids open. He blinked the sluggish feeling away, and his view was overtaken by his brother's helmet staring down at him.

Once Alphonse saw his brother's eyes open, his shoulders sagged visibly with relief. "Brother, are you okay?"

Edward stared at his brother for a moment with growing concern. He was slightly disappointed as well but a reason for that emotion was not making itself known. "I'm fine, Al," he stated flatly. He didn't feel any pain at least. Grogginess aside, he really did feel fine, but he couldn't think of a reason why Alphonse would ask him such a question, and that worried him.

Edward glanced around himself to find he and Al were at the hospital. Ed wasn't surprised considering the previous information he had gathered, but it unnerved him regardless. He looked back at Al, who was watching over him, his body language obviously on edge, as if he believed Ed could fall back into unconsciousness at any moment.

Ed took in his brother's armor body and, with a start, a small snippet of memory came back to him.

_That's right_, Ed thought. They had been chasing another lead on the philosopher's stone, hadn't they?

But Al was still in his armor. He didn't seem overly eager to tell Ed whether or not they had been successful in their search either so Edward knew they had failed to find the stone.

It wasn't a very promising lead anyway. It had brought them to some backwater town neither of the boys had ever heard of in the middle of the Eastern area. Ed hadn't had high hopes, but the realization was discouraging anyway.

"I-I'm glad you woke up," Alphonse continued quietly, not meeting his brother's gaze. "I was getting worried that you wouldn't…" His fingers twiddled with the pages of the book sitting closed on his lap. It was a thick, old and battered book no doubt gotten from the East City library in order to pass the time that Ed's had been dead to the world.

But just how long had he been gone?

Ed craned his neck slightly to look at the cover; his heart leaped as he saw the title said something about comas and other similar medical conditions. How long _had _he been out if his brother was reading up on something so grave?

"Al…what—what's wrong? How long was I unconscious? What happened? We didn't find the stone, did we?" Ed pushed himself up slightly but fell back into the pillows heavily. His balance was off and something wasn't right. Ed clutched at his right shoulder, suddenly struck with the realization. "And where's my arm? What happened to my arm?" His automail arm was completely gone, leaving nothing behind but an empty shoulder port. Without a moment's hesitation, Ed flung off the thin, white sheet covering his legs to reveal that they were both present.

Ed exhaled his held in breath, his eyes sweeping over the nicks in his prosthetic and the bandages and gauze covering his flesh right leg.

"Brother, stop. Calm down," Alphonse said, trying hard to stay calm himself. He reached over, gently taking his brother's shoulders in his large gauntlets and forcing Ed to lay back down.

"Al, what happened?" Ed repeated. His voice was still slightly panicked but he made no move to struggle from the suit of armor's hold.

After a moment, Alphonse let go and sat back in the hospital chair. "Ed, it's okay. You're going to be alright. We got you to the hospital early this morning, and you've been falling in and out of consciousness ever since. That's why…I was worried, I didn't know if you'd stay awake this time."

Ed searched his brother's face but found nothing in the expressionless mask. He only felt marginally better by what Al told him. "Did something happen to me when we were looking for the stone? It was another false lead, wasn't it?"

Alphonse looked up then and stared at his brother. He was quiet for a moment, and Edward shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. "Ed…the stone wasn't there at all. It was all a trick, we got ambushed shortly after we arrived. You…you don't remember that?"

Ed shook his head slowly from side to side, staring at his brother in disbelief. He pulled the blanket slowly off himself more gently this time and gave his body a cursory glance. His legs seemed to have gotten the worst of it if all the patches were anything to go by. Part of his left forearm was wrapped up as well. Feeling his face tentatively with his only hand, Ed found nothing more than a bandage on his cheek and one hidden under his bangs to cover his right temple.

As Edward patted himself down, Alphonse had spoken up again. "The doctors said you might suffer memory loss. I was hoping you wouldn't…" He shifted in his chair. "You were showing signs of hypothermia and your body was going into shock when we found you. It's a good thing we found you when we did. I don't…I don't know what would have happened if we had come any later."

Edward paused his examination at the sudden thick emotion in his brother's young voice. Alphonse had pulled his shoulders in and was staring down sullenly at the book clutched in his hands.

Ed's lips pulled down in a tight frown. He had screwed up once again, and Alphonse had received the worst of it, having to sit without pause by his brother's bed, not even knowing whether or not he'd wake up. "Sorry…" The word slipped out guilty before Ed even realized he had said it. He leaned over awkwardly and patted Al's large hand, even though Ed knew he couldn't feel the gesture. "Sorry I worried you."

Al shook his head. "It's okay, Brother. It wasn't your fault. And you're okay now, that's what's important, right?" He didn't seem too convinced. Ed wasn't either soothed by the words much either but he didn't say anything.

Ed drew his hand back after a pause and settled into the pillows. "Was I really that bad off? Did you really think I was in a coma?" He nodded toward the book when Alphonse glanced up.

Al looked down at the object in question as if he had forgotten it was there. His hands gripped at the edges in thought. "This actually wasn't for you…" Al shifted uncomfortably as if he didn't want to relay the information he obviously knew. Al seemed to be handling Ed gently now, as if the loss of his memories from whatever had happened made him fragile and one more bad thing on top of it all would make him bow and break under its weight.

"Who…" Ed asked gravely. He stared Alphonse down, making it evident that he didn't want to be fed sugar-coated half-truths.

"You probably don't remember," Al started, squirming, "but the colonel was there too."

"What happened to him?" Ed voice had hushed considerably.

"We don't know. It seems like he got hit in the head somehow and probably had a concussion…the doctors aren't sure if he'll wake up. Or if will be any time soon." Al's voice tapered off.

"How do they not know what happened to him?" Ed asked, getting frustrated with this entire situation and the doctors' incompetence and his own lack of recollection. "You were there, weren't you? Don't you remember?"

"I…Brother, we got separated when we were ambushed. I went and got help as soon as it happened but by the time we found both of you, you were in terrible shape. With the colonel unresponsive and unable to tell us what happened to him, it seems you're the only witness. But now, with your memory..."

"This is ridiculous." Ed was struck with a sudden rush of restlessness. He hated hospitals. He hated being sick or injured. He had to get out of this confining bed and this building with its thick, anesthetic smell. His feet touched the linoleum floor before he even knew where he planned to go. He just knew he had to get out of there; he had to find the colonel at least. Ed needed to see the man with his own eyes. Surely he was somewhere stuck in this hospital along with Ed, whether he was conscious or not.

Alphonse grabbed Ed's arm gently before he could make any headway for the door. "Brother, you can't. You need to rest."

Ed halted and stared at his brother in slight confusion. Couldn't Al understand what he was feeling? How helpless he felt? Lying around in a hospital bed wouldn't do anyone any good. Ed tried willfully to get his gaze to convey that in a way he knew his words couldn't.

"The doctors need to come check up on you first," Al said more to himself than to Ed. He knew his brother well and he knew Ed hated sitting around idly. Al almost let him go, but he kept his grip firm, knowing Ed's wellbeing should come before his restless attitude. "You just woke up. I know this is frustrating but you can't just go running off."

Ed frowned but he looked at the armor, silently knowing Al was right.

"Brother, please sit back down. I'll try to tell you everything I know, okay?"

Ed shifted his weight from foot to foot. Finally, he relented; he was more tired and out of sorts than he would willingly admit. Besides, hearing any information he could was better than running off cluelessly. The young alchemist flopped back down on the mattress, and Alphonse helped pull the blanket up around his brother.

"Can you tell me the last thing you remember?" the younger boy asked as he settled back in his chair.

Ed stared down at his blanket covered feet, thinking. "We were on the train, I think. You were complaining about losing at cards once again and you called me a cheater—"

"You _are_ a cheater," Al pointed out.

"That was once when I was twelve!" Ed defended. "Anyway, we were on our way to the town of Awrosut after Mustang had given us another lead on the stone. And that's all I can remember besides waking up a few times before now."

Alphonse listened quietly and nodded once Edward fell silent. "You…you missed a lot," Al decided, slightly exasperated. He took a deep breath that held no air and sighed, the noise echoed inside his hollow armor. He began to tell Edward everything that had happened, and Ed felt a heavy weight begin to settle down on him and its pressure began to smother him.

* * *

**[A/N: ahhhh yes starting a new story! Not sure if I like it yet. I plotted out the entire thing fairly quickly, and it seems a bit sloppy to me atm but I'm still tweaking some of the details as I go on to the next chapter. So even if it's just one quick chapter right now, tell me what you guys think, if you'd like!]**


	2. Chapter 2

Edward's head tilted slightly to the side as he stared down in pensive thought. It had been days since he had first awoken in the hospital, but Al's words still haunted his mind. They hounded him every waking moment as Ed tried desperately to piece together an unsolvable puzzle. If only he could just will his mind to _remember_. Then they wouldn't be in this mess.

But he couldn't. And they were. There was nothing anyone could do about that.

What Al had told him hadn't helped much either. It gave Ed a general sense of what had happened but not even that story could spark back any memories that could help either himself or the colonel.

According to Alphonse, it had begun early in the morning last week when the brothers had gotten off the train in the small town of Awrosut. As Al described it, Ed could vaguely see the village in his mind's eye. But that was still a blur and what Ed did remember was more of a feeling than actual images. If someone asked him to draw out a visual of the town, Ed doubted he would be able to.

Regardless, Ed acknowledge that that was true and could halfheartedly agree with Al that that is what had happened. He did it more to satisfy his brother more than anything else; Al had incessantly asked throughout his story re-telling whether Ed remembered certain details or not. More often than not Ed would nod or answer with a shrug, even if it wasn't true and his memory of anything after the train ride was still swimming in an unrelenting fog.

After that, they had gotten off the train and promptly run into the colonel on the platform.

What dumb luck, Ed thought with an eye roll. He could only imagine what his reaction had been when he and Al had run into the old bastard out in the middle of nowhere.

Mustang had been in town to catch a connecting train back to East City. Now _that_ was something Edward actually did remember. The colonel had been out of town for most of the week prior, at some important meeting in Central he had been called upon to attend.

Al then told Ed that they had been approached by a man that had heard the Elric brothers would be in town. Ed had no idea how the man knew them or how he knew of their location or their reason behind the visit. Apparently the colonel was just as confused about that development as the brothers had been.

But the man was a local and he seemed to know his way around better than they did so a flimsy trust formed quickly. The man raddled on as he showed them through the small town. Apparently it was much to Ed's chagrin that Mustang followed them since the colonel's train wasn't due for a while.

There had been supposed rumors concerning the warehouse district part of town which resided next to a large river on the outskirts, and that was believed to be where they would uncover the stone. Ed knew now the stone, just like the rumors, had all been a lie to get them there and catch them off-guard.

They had been ambushed as soon as they entered the first warehouse. The man had turned on them without hesitation as that had been his plan all along. Ed had no doubt he must have been working with others, but Al said he was the only one the three of them had fought, and lost, against.

Edward stared down at the colonel now. Idiot. If Mustang hadn't stuck his nose into their business he never would have gotten caught up in all of this; he wouldn't be lying unreachable in a hospital bed with no improvement in the last several days. He might not have been damned so easily.

Ed couldn't help but feel angry at the man before him now. He had never been too fond of the colonel. He was jerk to Ed even during the best of times, but that didn't mean Ed ever wanted anything bad to happen to him. As much as he hated to admit it, he respected the colonel and in some twisted sort of way, he was fond of their bickering and silently supportive relationship.

Of course he would never admit that out loud but Ed supposed it was okay to think it here in the silence of Mustang's room, where only his own thoughts gave him any real company.

As Ed pondered the event that had led them both here, he couldn't help the tugging in the back of his mind. Really, it all seemed rather convenient. That he and Al had been in such a remote location and had run into the colonel of all people. Ed remembered now how bad of a feeling the whole town had given him, but it had been buried under a desperate hope that this lead would heed real results for once.

He had been such an idiot.

This had all been set up to hurt him. For what reason, Ed wasn't sure. It couldn't have been for ransom since they had tried to kill him, Al said. Maybe they were jealous of his status and power at such a young age; maybe his alchemic abilities threatened them. Ed wasn't sure he would ever know the reason and that unnerved him. The thought of hearing the truth somehow unnerved him even more.

And if the colonel had been there, was it possible he had been set up too? No, no, that was ridiculous. He had an actual reason for being in town; it was nothing shady like Ed and Al's lead.

Ed pushed the conspiratorial thoughts out of his head. He still wasn't in his right mind. He was still shaken up by the incident and still healing; none of his memory had yet to make a reappearance. It wasn't good to be jumping to conclusions, especially in such a fragile state of mind.

Ed shook his head, physically trying to break up the train of thought. It was the colonel's own stupidity and his own carelessness that had gotten him jumbled up in the brothers' predicament. And now he was the one paying for it for trying to protect them. He was never supposed to be a factor.

Ed still wasn't satisfied with that thought, but he dropped the subject anyway.

It had been days now that Ed had been stuck in the hospital and the colonel hadn't improved at all. At least he hadn't gotten worse, Ed countered.

Ed had found himself drawn to Mustang's room several times since he had awoken. Ed tried to tell himself that was only because it was the only place he could get away from the smothering doctors and nurses and Al, who was always fussing over his wellbeing. But that wasn't all of it. Ed was concerned. He'd never really worried about his superior before but now that seemed to be all he was thinking about. Ed felt guilty about the entire thing too. Maybe if it hadn't been for Ed's carelessness, the colonel wouldn't have gotten hurt. So some form of self-imposed penance made him feel obligated to stand watch in the colonel's room, watching like a hawk for any sign of improvement.

Hawkeye was there a lot of the time as well. It seemed she spent all her time not spent filing paperwork at the office here in the colonel's room. Ed tried telling her early on that she didn't need to worry and watch so closely, the doctors would take care of everything and she needed to take care of herself first and stay rested. She had just smiled sadly with a deep sort of understanding in her eyes and told Edward he should take his own advice.

After that they didn't talk much. At the times when they were both in the room they would sit silently, not staring directly at the colonel but not really looking at anything else.

Ed still preferred the times when Hawkeye was busy with work. He preferred the silence. It was calming considering all the restless thoughts and noise that went on in his head as he struggled to fix this seemingly hopeless situation.

Stepping into the colonel's room was more serene than Ed first thought it would be. But the doctors didn't come by as often as they did with Ed, and the small sounds of the hospital could easily be shut out behind a closed door.

The room was white and bright, it was calming and not overbearing like it seemed to be in Ed's room. Ed knew that was just his mind playing tricks on him, but he didn't really care.

The sooner he got out of the hospital the better. Ed hated the feeling that came with being injured. He hated being treated like an invalid and being treated like a fragile little boy. He could see the pitying looks the staff gave him and he could only count the minutes until he escaped from their gaze.

But leaving the hospital also meant leaving all this. Ed glanced around the room, reluctant to leave its calm space.

He was schedule to be released today and he couldn't have been happier when he first heard that news. But something kept him rooted here. Leaving the hospital seemed to Ed like he was giving up somehow. It felt like everyone was moving on with their lives while the colonel was just left here without a care. Ed felt like he was abandoning his superior when this man had been the only one to share to some degree what he was going through. Even if the man had yet to regain consciousness, Ed felt a new connection between them since they were the only two to go through the whole dilemma.

Ed could almost hear the smirk in Mustang's voice if he could hear Ed's thoughts now, smugly asking Ed where the sudden sense of loyalty had come from when he had almost never followed his orders before.

"Brother?"

Edward jumped out of his chair at the entrance of a new voice. He turned around swiftly, embarrassed, as if his brother could hear his thoughts. Alphonse was standing at the threshold to Mustang's room. His imposing armor barely fit in the doorway. He held Ed's suitcase in one hand and had his brother's signature red coat draped over his arm.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked quietly, as if not to disrupt the room's serenity.

"I…uh, yeah." With an exhale, Ed glanced at the colonel's still form one last time. He tried to act casual as he stood up straight and turned away. Of course he'd come back and visit. Even if Mustang didn't make for good company at the moment. Ed wasn't giving up on that old bastard just yet. He wasn't abandoning the colonel, Ed thought even as he headed for the door. Even if he was leaving, he would still work hard and he would save Mustang if no one else was going to do anything about it. Ed was the one who had gotten him into this mess, and he would help him get out too.

Ed was never one to give up, and he wasn't about to start a streak of cowardice now, especially not when the colonel's life hung in the balance. "C'mon," he said, reveling silently at the strength in his voice, "let's go."


End file.
